ethno 5

My two interviews presented some very unique challenges, primarily involving the fact that I was in a public space surrounded by a large number of people.  Since language was a primary factor in my interviews, I expected there to be a certain number of challenges and conducting interviews in English.  However, both of the people interviewed had more than satisfactory command of the English language. 

Interview 1: Latino Male

The biggest challenge in interviewing this subject was that he originally kept his responses brief and concise.  However, upon follow-up questions, he began to lead the discussion more, and began volunteering more information than was asked.  This was excellent, because the quality of information that he volunteered was much higher than simple yes or no answers, or similar responses that are more quantitative.  I sensed that he was much more proficient in English than he let on, and if that he maintained a certain amount of humility, so as not to pretend to be an advanced English speaker when he wasn’t.  However, in conversation with this individual, I found his command of the English language to be highly satisfactory, and, if I encountered this individual and the casual setting, I would never have guessed that English was not his primary language, other than, perhaps, a slight accent.  Once he understood the nature of my assignment, he was happy to volunteer information.  While he did offer many leading and follow-up comments, he did not over share, and tend to remain on topic.

Interview 2: Latina Female

Interviewing this person was a little bit more of a challenge than the first.   Unlike the for subject, this person had equal command of both English to Spanish, having been brought up to speak both languages from birth.  Therefore, she did not have one primary and one secondary language, but consider both of them to be a primary language.  Quinn understanding the reason for my interview, the subject immediately began over sharing, and going off topic.  It was a challenge two bridge the discussion back to the original topic.  As time went on and she became more comfortable with the discussion, she made it look like more than once to say how her parents brought her up to be a strong Hispanic female, and even when asked questions about other individuals in our party, she would often circled back to herself over them.  A simple follow-up question such as “what about your husband” was all that was needed to get her back on track.  She did, however, tend to use more buzz words and talking points, such as “marginalization”, “disenfranchisement”, “macroaggression” etc, that have little if anything to do with the topic.  Despite that, it was relatively easy to ask follow-up question to circle back to the original point.  She did not seem to notice I was doing this, and instead thought that I was simply engaging and casual and curious conversation.  That seemed to work my advantage, since she was happy to continue talking about whatever direction I let her in.

The entire experience of the interview process mace me appreciate the difficulty that professional researchers face in conducting a large in depth interview projects, especially when involving a large number of subjects, more complex topics, and larger settings such as focus groups.  As much as our textbooks can impart a cursory understanding of what is involved in interviews, the only true way to amass a full grasp of it is by gaining practical, real-world experience.  Just like learning how to drive a car, one can study for the test and answer the textbook questions perfectly.  However, there is no better teacher than getting behind the wheel and getting a feel for what it takes to become a driver, with each experience adding to the overall understanding.